Funding plea for Kalparrin rehab centre

The South Australian Opposition is calling on the State Government to push for funding for a rehabilitation centre in a Murraylands Aboriginal community.

Last year, the Federal Government cut funding for the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre at Kalparrin, near Murray Bridge, so it could be redirected to a new centre at Port Augusta.

However, Liberal MP Terry Stephens says the future of the Port Augusta centre is still up in the air after the tender process collapsed.

He says the centre in Kalparrin deserves funding.

"It's a cost shift and ultimately someone has got to pick up the slack because it wasn't as if there were three other options people could go to ... it certainly breaks your heart a bit when you see people are putting in a really big effort to help other people but nobody else is picking up and I'm just not sure where those people will go," he said.

Mr Stephens says the Government should be putting more pressure on the Commonwealth to have the funding reinstated or should fund the centre itself.

"Ultimately this is a South Australian problem, it's federal funding but it's a South Australian problem," he said.

"To my understanding, there's no other facility that provides anything like that service and I'm just not sure where those people go."

The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Hunter, says Country Health SA continues to provide funding to the Kalparrin community to operate a mobile assistance patrol.